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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Mental illness is a critical underlying concept in
3various areas of our law affecting mitigation of criminal
4responsibility and fundamental rights to property, individual
5liberty, and personal privacy; and
 
6    WHEREAS, For at least 2 generations, mental illness has
7been presumed to be brain disease which is best confronted as a
8treatable medical problem; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Vast amounts of State resources and tax monies,
10not to mention the creative energies and work of our citizens
11and civil servants, are continuously expended in accordance
12with Illinois laws and regulations dependent upon derived
13psychiatric definitions, formulations, and diagnostic criteria
14for mental disorders, in particular upon those definitions,
15formulations, and criteria which are found in the American
16Psychiatric Association's nearly 20-year-old Diagnostic and
17Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition
18(DSM-IV); and
 
19    WHEREAS, The head of the task force which developed DSM-IV
20recently admitted that since it was published in 1993, that
21manual has resulted in at least 3 false epidemics causing
22countless persons to be prescribed expensive, unnecessary,

 

 

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1potentially dangerous psychotropic drugs; and
 
2    WHEREAS, A professor of psychiatry and author of a leading
3reference book on psychopharmacology recently called the
4entire chemical imbalance theory of mental disorders an urban
5legend; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Experts in the field of mental health are
7currently in major and substantial disagreement about the
8general validity of psychiatric diagnosis itself; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Despite explicit admonitions in DSM-IV against
10the use of psychiatric diagnosis for such legal purposes as
11establishing competence, criminal responsibility or
12disability, Illinois courts and agencies have nonetheless
13habitually relied upon the formulations and criteria in the DSM
14for the precise expertise which the text itself disclaims; and
 
15    WHEREAS, A new edition of the American Psychiatric
16Association's manual, DSM-5, is scheduled for publication in
17May of 2013, but proposed changes for this upcoming DSM are
18provoking intense criticism from a diverse range of mental
19health experts, more than 12,000 of whom have signed a petition
20protesting the secretive and unscientific character of the
21APA's proposals to expand concepts of mental disorder to a
22point where normal human emotions and coping behaviors will be

 

 

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1falsely pathologized as illness; therefore, be it
 
2    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
3NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
4the Task Force on Mental Diagnosis and Illinois Law be created
5within the Office of the Governor, and jointly supervised by
6the Comptroller and the Attorney General, to
7    (1) thoroughly survey the Illinois Compiled Statutes and
8    Administrative Code to identify all instances where our
9    laws and government functions depend upon purported
10    understanding of mental illness or disorder, mental
11    capacity, mental health, behavior or psychology, which may
12    be recently discredited, or reasonably considered
13    incorrect or arbitrary in light of the current confusion
14    among mental health experts over the possible absence of
15    scientific validity in psychiatric diagnosis;
16    (2) forward initial recommendations of urgent legislative
17    actions which may be needed to avoid gross injustice or
18    waste of public resources to the General Assembly as soon
19    as possible; and
20    (3) produce a final report summarizing the task force's
21    findings and detailing recommended statutory or
22    constitutional strategies to correct negative impacts of
23    concepts and nomenclature now discredited or inconsistent
24    with current medical science, and to avoid future
25    immoderate scientism in our laws and public policy; and be

 

 

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1    it further
 
2    RESOLVED, That the task force shall consist of the
3following members: 3 members appointed by the Speaker of the
4House of Representatives, one of whom shall be appointed
5co-chairperson; 3 members appointed by the minority leader of
6the House of Representatives, one of whom shall be appointed
7co-chairperson, one member appointed by the Comptroller; and
8one member appointed by the Attorney General; and be it further
 
9    RESOLVED, That in appointing members of the task force, the
10Speaker and minority leader shall consider that professional
11experience in diverse mental health-related fields may be a
12positive qualification; and be it further
 
13    RESOLVED, That the task force shall take voluntary
14assistance and testimony from individuals and professional
15organizations and institutions; and be it further
 
16    RESOLVED, That the members of the task force shall serve
17without compensation but may be reimbursed for actual expenses
18while serving on the task force from funds appropriated to the
19Office of the Governor for that purpose; and be it further
 
20    RESOLVED, That the task force shall submit its final report
21to the Governor and the General Assembly no later than December

 

 

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131, 2013.